Parsley Baguette & Cilantro Pesto

Here are the recipes I promised in my last post. I'll be paraphrasing the directions so they aren't so long and tedious. Try it out! Baking bread isn't nearly as difficult as it sounds. If you don't have a large food processor with a hole to pour in wet ingredients while it runs, I suggest mixing and kneading the dough by hand (more on that later)

Parsley Baguette

Bread Flour - about 4 cups
Chopped Parsley - .5 cups
Salt - 1 tsp
Instant yeast - 1 tsp
Water - 1.25 cups

1. Put all ingredients but water in the food processor
2. With the processor running, add all but a few tablespoons of the water and process for 20 seconds. If the dough is still dry and crumbly, add the remaining water. The dough should form a ball. Continue processing for 25 more seconds.
3. Put dough ball in a large bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let sit for about 1.5 hours. The dough may rise and increase in volume while resting.
4. Dump dough ball from bowl onto a lightly floured surface (e.g. large cutting board, countertop) and cut the ball into 3 equal pieces with a sharp knife. Shape the dough into balls and cover again with plastic wrap. Let sit for 20 minutes.
5. While the dough is resting, lay a clean canvas grocery bag on a separate work surface and lightly flour. We'll get back to the canvas soon. If you don't have a canvas bag, just wing it. I'll explain later.
6. Place dough balls on lightly floured surface and pat down to flat rectangles about 4"x5"x1". Fold top half down about 2/3 of the way and press gently with the heel of you hand to seal dough. Flip it around 180 degrees and repeat. Fold in half lengthwise and press to seal. Repeat for all dough balls.
7. Roll the dough into a snakes (like Play-doh) being careful not to stretch the dough. Just let them gently lengthen to about 14 inches.
8. Now place one dough snake onto the canvas. If you can find the seam made from all the folding, place the snake seam side up. Place another a few inches beside it and bring the canvas between the two snakes up to create a wall between them. Repeat with the last snake. The snakes should be nearly touching with some canvas squished between. Set a book or something on each side to hold them in place and cover loosely with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel. Let sit for about 30 minutes or until the snakes are 50% larger. (This setup will ensure that the dough rises up and not out. If you need to ghetto-rig something I'd suggest spraying some aluminum foil or wax paper with non-stick cooking spray and trying that. I've never tried it but it seems like it would work. My time in the kitchen is always an adventure.)
9. Preheat oven to 475 degrees with rack on the second shelf from the bottom. Put a small pan on the oven floor. It will hold water later.
10. Uncover snakes and make a few diagonal slashes on the top with a razor blade or very sharp knife.
11. Carefully pour 1 cup of water in the pan on the oven floor. Place the baguettes on the oven rack and reduce heat to 450 degrees. Bake for 2 minutes and then quickly and carefully add another cup of water to the pan. Bake for another 20 minutes or until golden brown. Tap the bottom of the loaves. If it sounds hollow, they're done. Remove and cool.

Cilantro Pesto

Parsley - .5 cup packed
Cilantro - 1.5 cups loosely packed
Spinach leaves - 1 cup packed
Pine nuts - 2 tbsp
Garlic - 2 cloves
extra virgin olive oil - .25 cup
Parmesan cheese - 2 tbsp

1. Blend all but oil and cheese in food processor until finely chopped.
2. With processor running, slowly add oil. Process until well blended
3. Stir in cheese

I wanted to add more oil to the finished pesto but didn't. It wasn't what I was expecting compared to store-bought pesto. Much thicker and bright green. Maybe next time I'll add more nuts or oil. But it was good and I was too excited about my bread to worry about the pesto!